Between boys
by Silverspegel
Summary: Post KH2, pre KH3D. Sora and Riku try to relax in the calm at their home islands, but none of them can forget what they've gone through. This is a short story about friendship and trusting someone else enough to let them know what you feel about things.


_This is just a one-shot I spewed out one late night by the computer. Please tell me what you think of it./ Silverspegel_

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**Between boys**

"Come on!" Sora whined tiredly and sagged with his shoulders in a defeated posture. "I can't go on for forever! Give me a break!"

"I'm not so sure I should," his tutor mused as he let his turquoise eyes scan him ruthlessly in a cold, disapproving stare that made Sora's heart sink in his chest.

The younger teen winced a little and took a step back, but still being too tired to raise his arms, he kept the wooden staff down, its further end slightly touching the ground, but at the ready. Despite his honesty in proclaiming his fatigue, he was more than able to keep fighting for quite a while longer. The necessary routines deeply engraved in his movements by habit after years of constant fighting. Still his technique was a bit sloppy from being mainly put together by himself as he went and learned new things and the latest period of disuse had made the former speed slow down, the fighter a bit rusty after a rest that had lasted a bit too long.

"But we've been practicing since early morning! I'm tired, hungry and worn out!" Sora complained as Riku didn't seem to be changing his mind about the continuance of the practice. His muscles ached as he shifted position and he felt the sweat on his back starting to make his dampened clothes feel cold and sticky.

"And you still can't prove to me that you've learned anything at all," Riku continued, equally annoyed at the situation. He took a look at the slowly sinking sun, sighed and threw his own staff away to land with a hollow clank against a nearby rock. "I guess it can't be helped. I've done my best. You go eat something now before you have an inconvenient black-out or something."

"Really?" Sora asked in slight disbelief, not ready to let go of his provisory weapon just yet, in case it was a test.

"What, are you daft? Go bug someone else for a while will you!" Riku huffed at him and sat himself down on the low bent trunk of the paupou tree, his back against the other boy.

"OK, see you tomorrow then, I guess," Sora replied with a relieved sound in his voice and turned around to head for the boats.

"Wait."

Sora stopped in his steps and turned back around to wait for the rest.

"What?" he asked after a minute of silence had passed between them without Riku saying anything more. The silver-haired teen's broad back heaved in a deep breath before he spoke, still without turning around to look at Sora.

"I just… I wanted to talk with you, that's all. We don't do that too much anymore. Not since… since we came back."

There was a feeling of awkwardness hanging in the air between them and Sora plucked at a splinter in the staff that he was still holding.

"So… what do you wanna' talk about then?" he slowly asked as the silence started to build up to an intolerable level of discomfort.

"Nothing special. I just felt like talking, you know."

The brunette snorted. He didn't believe a word of it. There had to be something big for his friend to act like this and the way he prolonged the revealing of the actual subject for this conversation pointed to this as well. But Sora didn't say anything about it. He knew Riku better than anyone else and the silverette had always had a hard time talking about sensitive stuff, but once he felt he had to say anything, it was really important for the one listening to be patient. So he waited for Riku to find his courage to talk.

"Sora?"

"Yeah, I'm still here," Sora replied tensely. This was it.

"Do you ever think about it all?"

The question had been unexpected and Sora felt his chin drop before he could help it and the staff slipped out of his hand, landing with a soft thud in the packed sand at his feet. The sound caught Riku's attention, finally making him turn around and look at his friend.

"Why d'you wanna' know?" Sora managed to ask, the words stumbling unwillingly through his mouth as he tried to erase the chaotic memories that had crashed upon him due to the question.

Riku's eyes took on a darker shade for a moment, sadness creeping into his features as he turned his face towards the ground, unwilling to look at his friend.

"I dream about it…" he said silently and with a deep breath he turned his head back up, re-directing his eyes towards the darkening sky. "Every night."

Sora swallowed hard. He'd figured as much. But for Riku to mention it, there had to be something more to it. "Yeah, well it's hard _not_ to, right?" he commented with false cheerfulness in his voice.

Riku frowned at this, his raised eyebrows creating shallow wrinkles in his forehead.

"How can you say things like that and still go on smiling? After all you've gone through…"

"Oh I don't know really," Sora interrupted his friend, afraid of what he would have said if he'd let him continue the sentence. "I guess I'm just made that way. If something makes you feel bad when thinking about it, then you do best by not thinking about it unless you have to."

"And it works?"

Sora kicked at the sand and turned his upper body back and forth, a feeling of unease entering his limbs. "Most of the time. More or less," he said slowly.

Riku nodded in silent understanding.

"Do you know why I do this training with you?"

The brunette picked up his staff from the sand and weighed it in his hands for a moment. It was heavier than his usual weapon, but still not too heavy to swing in battle, should it ever be necessary to do so.

"No, not really," he answered Riku after some thought. "I just go along with it, since you want to do it."

A small smile spread itself on Riku's lips and he shook his head slowly while looking at his friend with affectionate eyes.

"Seriously, Sora, you of all people should know the importance of keeping yourself fit for fight. What if the heartless came back?"

His words struck Sora as if they'd been delivered with a slap of a hand in his face. Riku noticed his reaction and regret instantly flowed into his eyes.

"Sora, I'm sorry, I…"

"No," Sora interrupted him with a strained smile on his lips, "don't apologize. I just thought I was the only one who thought about it."

"Well, you're not. They came back once, remember? And for some reason, I don't think we've seen the last of Ansem, Xemnas, or Xehanort or whatever his name really is."

"Same here," Sora admitted. "Even though it defies the facts of what we know, I fear that he'll come back someday. And I've been having dreams… mostly memories of… well, let's just say it's more like nightmares than anything else. And they're getting worse."

Riku jumped down from the tree and got to him in three wide strides, putting his strong hands on his shoulders and looking at him with troubled eyes. "Why haven't you said anything before?"

"I didn't want you to worry. You've got enough on your own as it is."

"What if I want to worry, then? You should have told me!" Riku said with a harsh voice, and Sora turned his eyes away from his, not able to look into them and see the worry that was already there because of what he had said.

"Sora, I have nightmares too. I dream of the heartless and of the things I did to you and Kairi while Ansem still controlled me. I can wake up in the middle of the night with the image of how you put that cursed keyblade into your own chest still in my head. And the darkness…"

Sora can feel Riku's arms shiver as they hold on to his shoulders, and he slowly return his eyes to his friend's.

"Are you telling me you're afraid of the dark?"

This line makes the seriousness in his friend's face disappear somewhat and he forced a smile onto his lips.

"Not really, but I know what it's capable of, and so do you."

Sora nodded grimly, a shadow passing over his face at the memories. He still had a hard time looking at an ordinary shadow without flinching if it moved.

"But it's only nightmares. Old memories can't hurt us now if we won't let them," Sora noted soberly and straightened himself.

"You still should have told me about the nightmares," Riku said with a hint of his ordinary confident self back in his voice and shifted from holding Sora's shoulders to standing beside him, watching the sun slowly set into the shimmering waves at the distant horizon and giving his friend a pat on his back. "I want you to trust me again."

"I never stopped trusting you, Riku," Sora commented and patted his back in return. "I thought you knew that much about me. You're my friend."

Riku looked at him in surprise, then he smiled softly.

"Just promise me that you won't keep anything in, then. You can talk with me about anything. I want to know. Heck, I'll even answer questions if you have anything you want to know about."

Sora thought for a moment.

"Riku…"

"What?"

"What happened those two years that I can't remember anything about?"

With a deep sigh and a frown on his face, Riku turned around and started walking towards the boats.

"We'll talk about that some other time. We have to get back home before the sun sets for real or we'll have to row by candle light."

Sora jogged after his friend.

"You said I could ask you anything and I really want to know this!" he said with a slightly annoyed voice.

Riku smiled wide.

"And I will give you the answer, don't worry. But not today."

"Tomorrow," Sora demanded stubbornly.

Riku almost laughed. Sora had a way of making him feel better, no matter the situation.

"Alright, tomorrow," he agreed and put an arm around his shoulder.

The two friends walked together down the beach where they'd spent most of their free time while growing up. The small island was their own little haven in a world that had turned out to be much larger and more chaotic than any of them had ever thought it to be.


End file.
